


Of Fact and Fiction

by lovehate_heartbreak



Category: Dark-Hunter Series - Sherrilyn Kenyon
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Families of Choice, Friendship, Like embarrassingly huge fangirl, Main character turns into a huge fangirl, Moments of angst, Other, Revelations, Slice of Life, Slight Canon Divergence, keeping secrets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-09 18:51:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6919024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovehate_heartbreak/pseuds/lovehate_heartbreak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if the novels we all read are true? If Sanctuary was more than a fictitious bar and the boogeyman in the shadows on the pages were real? What would you do if you suddenly found yourself face-to-face with the reality of a world you believed sprang forth from the mind of a talented woman like Athena did from Zeus? </p>
<p>Would you embrace it or run screaming the other way?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Fact and Fiction

**Author's Note:**

> To preface: I own nothing but my OC in this wonderful universe created by the author goddess, Sherrilyn Kenyon.
> 
> This fic will probably be a short few chapters unless inspiration strikes to take it further. Or people would like to read more. Whichever comes first. Hope you all enjoy!

-I'm leaving behind this world  
And all the things I am-

 

The midnight roads were always the best to drive. Hardly a soul travelling the highways and byways to hinder one's progress to a destination they needed to go to. And the peaceful, star filled sky would soothe the spirit of most if they took the time to stop and stare.

But tonight, that comfort was lost to a woman driving away from the hurt and heartache she left behind. Some might call her a coward. Others weak for not standing up for herself. But a select few knew her reasonings for leaving her Tennessee home of almost twenty years.

Because she was tired of fighting a losing war with those that thought they knew better than her. And against a twisted system set up to make any who went against it fail miserably. Leaving them as broken as she was in that moment.

Alicia Wasson swiped at the grief induced tears from her face as she navigated her old 1998 Ford Explorer down the unfamiliar, two lane interstate headed for a new life. After a long, gruelling five year battle against the state of Tennessee to get her two daughters back, they had finally done the one thing that made her drop her arms and slough off her war torn armor from her legal fights against them. They ruled she was unfit to care for her two daughters she loved more than life itself.

Her daughters, Amelia and Natalie, had been taken away from their Smyrna home because someone at their school had thought they were being neglected. Alicia worked at an auto parts store part time while she took online classes to get her ASE certification through the company. Having to pay for rent, utilities, her phone, and trying to keep the few clothes on their backs clean from trips to the laundry mat, there was little to nothing left of her meager earnings. Alicia received monthly government stipends to help get food in the house along with going to food banks all over the county because she couldn't afford to pay for all the food they needed.

There had been times that things went bad. Lights were shut off every so often because she had to let them go, or she couldn't afford gas for the truck to get the girls where they needed to go. Or, in a few cases, they slept in the old SUV because they had been thrown out for delinquent rent.

It was shameful to Alicia that she couldn't provide some of the basic needs her daughters needed. But she had been blessed at the young ages of 18 and 20 with two highly intelligent, wonderful, and loving daughters. She counted herself lucky every single day she had them in her life.

Then, early one morning while they were all getting ready for the day, that horrible knocking came to their run down trailer's front door. It had sounded like whoever was doing it was trying to break down the paper thin front door. When Alicia opened it and saw the DCS worker and four officers standing at the base of her porch steps, she knew something was wrong.

With papers in hand, they had ripped her heart out as they took her two precious daughters from her arms. Alicia had begged them not to take her girls. Asking through heart wrenching sobs why they didn't give her the chance to rectify the situation before taking her heart and soul away. Why they had to tear her tiny family apart. The only answer she had been given was a sympathetic smile, a pat on her back, and told to read over the paperwork they gave her.

And read she had after she got home from being sent home from work. Yes she had still reported in to work like she was scheduled. She had tried to bury her grief so as to function properly enough to get through the day. But when her boss caught her sobbing her heart out in the very back of the store by the battery chargers, the woman told her to take the rest of the day and the next off. 

The paperwork stated she had been deemed unfit for caring for her daughters due to irrefutable evidence provided by an anonymous source. The only thing Alicia could figure was someone at the school had called and reported the girls' worn clothing that had seen one too many washes and too much use. Couple that with their Goodwill shoes that had more super glue on the soles than should be necessary, and it genuinely looked like their mother had neglected to provide for them.

Though the opposite was true.

Alicia had, more often than not, went without much to make sure her daughters had it better than her. Their daddy (who was Alicia's ex fiance that loved the girls like daughters) would often times give her money so that she could get basic necessities like food, toilet paper, and soap. He and his mother would also get them clothing and shoes when they needed it. Alicia would always tell him that she would pay him back, but he would wave it off and say he would add it to what she already owed him.

Which had broken over two grand six months ago. To save herself from further going into debt, Alicia hadn't asked Jaiden for anything else. Though he kept trying to give her money, she had refused it saying that she just simply didn't need it. They both knew it was a lie, but he never pushed the issue with her.

After the girls had been taken, Alicia had spent five years fighting legal battle after legal battle to get her daughters back. She worked hard and was promoted a few times within her work. The extra income made it possible for her to afford to move into an apartment in a better part of town. She was able to afford the parts necessary to fix her truck to get it running right and had a business plan in the works to start an auto shop with her sister, Sierra. 

But even after giving the courts everything they wanted and more to prove she was able to take care of her girls, it inevitably wasn't enough in the eyes of the court. They ultimately ruled in favor of the state and had her parental rights stripped of her, making it now impossible to ever get her girls back before their eighteenth birthdays.

So Alicia scraped and saved every last cent she could for almost seven months until she had enough to leave. Employment was easy enough to secure since the company she worked for was a national chain. All it took was a few choice calls and she had a job waiting for her where she planned to move.

The hard part had been saying goodbye to her daughters. The foster family they had been placed with was wonderful. The couple were kind and caring and always allowed Alicia to see her girls no matter what the court said. They knew how rare it was for parents who were truly misjudged to do everything in their power to still provide for their children even when there was no need. More often than not, parents would leave total care with the fosters whether or not they came around to see their children.

Alicia had gone to them and told them, through tears, what she was going to do. Of course the girls had cried and pleaded for her to not go. But Alicia had to leave. She had to go where there was more opportunity to make a life for them when the time came for them to move back in with her. Alicia had held them tightly to herself and sobbed, promising to call every day and visit as money allowed. She did her best to impart that she wasn't abandoning them. Simply making it so their lives were better when it was time to be together again.

It had been the hardest thing she ever did to drive away while she watched Amelia chase after her in the side mirror. 

That image now came to the forefront of Alicia's emotion torn mind and made her pull over on the side of the moonlit interstate to cry for the millionth time this trip. Her heart was sick with grief. She didn't want to leave, but she had to. It was the fresh start she needed to make their lives better. But that truth was hard to believe when she ached to hold her babies to her chest and never let them go.

She didn't know how long she sat there wallowing in her grief before strobing blue lights lit up what little of the interior of her truck they could. Looking at her mirror, Alicia saw a police car had parked behind her and had the spotlight trained on the back of her vehicle.

'Great...' she thought as she began to try and move things around in the passenger seat to gain access to the glovebox.

"Evening, ma'am." The officer's thick Mississippi accent cut above the low hum of music coming from the stereo. His light shined into the interior to see what all she had packed in there. "Everything okay?"

'No. But if you gave me your gun I will be.' She thought as she began to get frustrated that she couldn't get to her glovebox to take out the registration and (technically expired) insurance information. "Not really." She answered truthfully and finally freed the dark blue Ford owner's book from its prison. "Just trying to make it to a fresh start. What can I do for you, officer?" Years of working customer service jobs made her automatically default to a light, friendly tone to try and mask her sorrow. But for the tear stains on her cheeks and how badly her hands shook from raw emotions, he wouldn't have known anything was wrong with her.

But he seemed to have picked up on something was wrong by the physical ques and the sad hitch to her voice. "I saw you sitting over here for a while with your hazards on and thought something might be wrong." Which led her to believe he had been parked somewhere close for him to have seen her. "Which, given your state something is. But I doubt it has anything to do with your vehicle."

"You would be right, sir." She said with a slight chuckle and finally handed over her paperwork and license so he wouldn't have to ask. "My buddy here may be old, but he don't quit. He's never let me down once. Not even after I wrecked him."

The officer gave a short, amused chuckle and waved off her paperwork. Then gestured to her worldly possessions and the pull behind trailer she was hauling. "How long you been driving? You look exhausted beyond the crying."

She glanced at her radio clock and realized just how long she's been driving. "Uh... Maybe eight hours? Give or take half an hour. Truth be told, I'm not sure." She gave a tired sigh and raked her hand through her short cropped brunette hair. "Not to give details, but it's been more emotionally draining than physically this trip. And I'm only about half way where I'm going."

"Where might that be?"

"New Orleans. Got a job and place waiting on me."

He nodded in understanding and looked down the highway, obviously judging something. "Tell you what, I'll lead the way to the next truck stop. I don't trust you to get there with as tired as you are, but you can't sit here. You could get hit by an eighteen wheeler." He turned back and gave her a small, brotherly smile. "I would hate to see you get hurt. You look like you've already had it pretty rough."

"You have no idea." She said and returned the smile with one she didn't feel. Honestly, she was glad he was offering to take her to a truck stop. At least there she could shower and get a decent meal and a few hours sleep before she hit the road again.

He nodded his approval and nodded at his car. "I'll keep the front lights on so I don't blind you. Just follow behind and keep your flashers on. We'll take it easy in case you start to fall asleep behind the wheel." And with that, he headed back to his car.

The drive to the exit gave her time to think about what she was going to do once she settled in her fresh start home. But her thoughts were a mish mash of jumbled ideas due to her exhaustion. "Just get to the exit. Figure it out later." She mumbled to no one.

It was a blessedly short trip to the truck stop. The bright lights and hundred foot sign shining like a beacon to weary travellers like a lighthouse for sea battered ships. She had never been so happy to see one in her entire life. Road tired and soul sick, Alicia guided her old, reliable truck into a parking spot and shut it off. The officer sounded his siren in a short farewell before he drove off into the night, probably to return to his previous spot. 

Inside, the store housed the usual truck stop fare: soda pop, snacks, miscellaneous semi bling and parts, and the obligatory glass figurine case. The lone cashier looked up from her phone to smile politely in greeting when Alicia approached.

"Can I get a shower ticket, please?" She asked with a tired sigh. The thought of a hot (or semi hot) shower began to help perk her mood up a bit.

"Sure!" The young woman punched a few keys on her register to cue up a ticket. "You'll be the only one in there, so I'll give you extra time. You look like you need it." 

'Do I really look that bad?' She wondered as she paid for her shower and thanked the woman for the kind gesture. Yeah she felt like total and utter crap, but how badly did her face really reflect her inner turmoil?

After retrieving her small bag of supplies and a change of clothes, Alicia made her way to the showers. Since she had been told she was the only one in there, she took the liberty to lock the door. A small semblance of privacy, but it was better than none in a place where anyone could walk in unannounced. 

She stripped from her clothes and turned on the shower head to let the steam roll out. It was a small blessing to find the water hot since she knew truck stops were notorious for bad water heaters. Even if it weren't she really couldn't complain. It was better than nothing and would help to wash away some of her melancholy that had built up with the passing miles.

Alicia owed the cashier a very big thank you. She found that what was supposed to be a ten minute shower ticket had actually been for 45 minutes. The shower she chose was the handicap stall, so she had plenty of room to scrub the road grime from her skin and relax her aching muscles from sitting so long. The shower also had a mirror mounted on the wall that gave her a good look of herself for the first time since the morning previous.

She looked like death had bitch slapped her.

Her face was sallow and pale, her green eyes puffy and bloodshot from exhaustion and crying, her cheeks sunken in, and her chocolate brown hair lacked its natural luster. The fact she hadn't eaten in almost two days reflected as well in the drawn line of her mouth.

No wonder the officer and cashier had acted the way they did when they saw her. She would have been the same way in their position.

Alicia was pulled from her self assessment when the timer gave a two minute warning. Quickly rinsing off before the water cut off, she stepped from the steamy booth with her towel wrapped securely around her healthy frame. 

Again she was thankful for the solitude of the locked door. It gave her time to think about the coming day and what she needed to do once she reached her new home. While she didn't really look forward to the drive, Alicia found a new sense of anticipation. 

"Look at the bright side," she said as she looked at herself in the mirror, "you finally get to see New Orleans like you always said you wanted to."

A small comfort, but it was better than nothing... Right?


End file.
